Monday 16 February 2009

Today I had one of those workouts that was really tough to get through. I had the feeling that if I forced myself through this one, the rest of this week's training will be far more enjoyable. I was pretty fatigued and my hips in particular were stiff and unwelcoming. I feel far better now for finishing the workout properly. This is what I did:

Overhead Squats--6x5--I got my feet out wider than ever before on these sets.Drop Snatch--1x3@bar, 40, 40, 50--I really focused on a wider base in the catch but it was not happening.Snatch Combo--1x3@65, 70, 75, 80--These were tough to get through and not very pretty at all.Drop Snatch--1x1@60, 65, 70, 75, 75, 80--I was able to get these but they were slow and cumbersome. There was no fluidity or width in my catch.Jerk skill with 40Power Clean and Jerk--1x1@60, 70, 80, 90, 110x4--These were tough also. I had to really focus on the last one because they felt heavy and slow.Front Squat--1x3@100, 110, 120, 130Glute Ham Raise--3x3--I have gotten far stronger on these and can complete full range reps now. My hamstrings have gotten far stronger due to the olympic lifts, rather than doing any isolated hamstring exercises.Sit ups--4x8--These are still hard without any momentum to help.

I had a 20 minute stretch in the pool followed by ten minutes in the sauna afterward. My hips badly needed the stretching and my right shoulder is not feeling as splendid as it should. All in all, I need to do more mid trap and rhomboid activation and more flexibility tension release for the hips. I am going to Galway in the morning to get out of Dublin for a few days and to train with Kevin Darcy who is also a 94kg lifter except he is far stronger and more technically able than myself. Hopefully I will learn something from him!

4
comments:

You were told in August or September that your mid-traps and rhomboids were proportionately weak. You said then that you'd work on it and have mentioned it a number of times since, including 2 or 3 times on this blog. In short; get on with it!!

There's plenty you can be doing that doesn't require the band you just bought and that could be easily built into your warm-up. I would recommend: scap push-ups and single arm DB (or plate) scap rows in particular.

I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that I was doing scap pull-ups and push ups in my warm up. I did way more of both these movements in my first session today and they really helped my shoulder. I did not feel the shoulder so far today, which was great.

Keep up the blunt appraisals, I need to do more scap work. I will do some in my second session later at the end, rather than just in the warm up.

Scap rows, that's a new one on me. Might add those in to my assistance session myself, am currently rotating between face pulls, lying external rotations with a small plate, scap pushups and scap wall slides. Cheers Hugh! How is your lifting coming along, anyway?